"She's a good actress," Perry, 42, told reporters of Kardashian at the NYC premiere of Madea's Witness Protection. "She did a really good job."

Perry admitted he did have to defend casting the reality star in the film. "There was a lot going on with her marriage and all that stuff at the time," he explained, of Kardashian's headline-making split from Kris Humphries after 72 days of marriage. "All that stuff that's in the past. The movie's called The Marriage Counselor. Of course it had something to do with that."

And casting the newcomer to the series just months after Houston's shocking death at age 48 needed no defense. "I didn't have to defend her casting at all. The whole purpose of that was to make sure that she was around people who cared, who loved her," he explained. "What I found when my mother died is that you have to be around people who you trust. And I was glad that I could be there."